PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

_ (the underscore) is the placeholder for exactly one character.
% (the percent sign) is the placeholder for no, one or more than one character.
%% (two percent signs) is the placeholder for no, one or more than one character, but not for blank space (so that a search ends at word boundaries).

At the beginning and at the end, these placeholders are superfluous.

London, British Library, Or. 8227

[Colour photographs of the textblock and cover.]
Single work: Arabic. Date:

Jumādā l-ākhira 1049/September-October 1639.

Or.:

unknown; unknown scribe.

Prov.:

numerous ownership statements (all on f. 1r): two dominating central statements in thuluth, one by al-ʿAbd al-Mujrim Muḥammad Sādiq al-Munajjim b. Muḥammad Taqī al-Munajjim accompanied by an oval seal, and a note of inheritance by Muḥammad Sādiq al-Munajjim (with his oval seal, dated 1066/1655-6, under the statement) in favour of his son al-Aghar Muḥammad Ashraf (cf. similar statements in MSS Tehran, Majlis, 21 S; Tehran, Majlis, 1464 S, and Tehran, University, microfilm 2885). Furthermore, a Persian statement dated Jumādā l-ākhira 1152/September-October 1739 with rectangular seal, indicating that the manuscript was bought from the bookseller Shaykh ʿAzīm (middle left); an ownership statement by al-ʿAbd al-Mujrim b. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm (lower left corner, dated 121⟨0⟩/1795-6); another statement of ownership dated 1222/1807-8 with an oval seal by (Ibn) Muḥammad Hāshim Muḥammad Qāsim (middle right), who had bought the manuscript in Astarabad (Gorgan) for four tumān two years earlier (note at the middle top, same hand and seal). A statement of ownership dated 11 Shawwāl 1258/15 November 1842, in the capital Tehran (cf. the wording Dār al-Khilāfa, during the reign of Muḥammad Shāh Qājār 1250–1264/1834–1848) (with oval seal; upper half, left side). An ownership statement barely legible due to moisture stains, probably dated 1270/1853-4, with oval seal ‘Ismaʿīl …’ (right bottom corner); a seal by ʿAbd-hu l-Rajaʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥman (left upper corner, next to an illegible note). An illegible, incomplete oval seal under the colophon (270v). The manuscript was bought from David Fetto on 8 November 1919 (note on the second back flyleaf). Stamps of the British Museum (1r and 270v, the latter with the date of purchase).

Cod.: paper, 270 ff. (foliation with Arabic-European numerals in pencil in the upper left corner of rectos; earlier foliations with Hindu-Arabic numerals in red (centre top, only for the first 41 folios) and in black (upper right margin) on versos; catchwords in the hand of the scribe). Two similar naskh hands. First hand (1v–198r): very clear naskh with oversized bowls of descenders, carefully dotted ductus, occasionally with vowel marks, shaddas and final hamzas regularly indicated. Second hand (198r–270v): clear slightly smaller black naskh, mostly dotted and also occasionally with vowel marks, shaddas and final hamzas regularly indicated. Chapter titles as well as paragraph beginnings rubricated, quotes from the Tetrabiblos mostly with red overlines; titles and rubrications frequently missing or wrong (ff. 45r–90v, corrected by a black hand), empty spaces reserved from f. 91 onwards. Abjad notation in the main text mostly dotted and with red overlines. ʿAlī b. Riḍwān’s own horoscope added by a later hand, sloppy and incorrect (226v); spaces reserved for the other two horoscopes usually found in this work (229v, 231r). Dimensions: not provided; 19 lines per page. Good condition, moisture stains (increasingly from f. 253v onwards) not affecting the readability. Bound in modern dark blue leather covers. Type III binding.

Cont.: astrology. — Index: Ptolemaica (1v–270v).

Bibl.: Peter Stocks and Colin F. Baker, Subject-Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London: The British Library, 2001, p. 376. British Library Archives and Manuscripts: http://searcharchives.bl.uk/permalink/f/79qrt5/IAMS032-003946561.

1v–⁠270v

\1v\ 〈…〉 قال أبو الحسن علي بن رضوان بن علي بن جعفر المتطبّب قصدنا أن نشرح أقاويل الحكيم بطلميوس في صناعة القضاء بالنجوم على الحوادث فنقول إنّ القضاء بالنجوم على الحوادث صناعة تنبئ عن مبادئ صادقة بالمتكوّنات المزمعة وذلك أنّ مبادئها الصادقة هي أشياء تبيّن بعضها في العلم الطبيعيّ وبعضها في العلم التعليميّ. — \270v\ فهذه أشياء قد شرّحتها لك فأنعم النظر فيها وتأمّله والله يهدي من يشاء إلى صراط مستقيم.

= ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān, Tafsīr al-Maqālāt al-arbaʿ (C.2.3)

. — Title: Kitāb Sharḥ Arbaʿa maqālāt li-Baṭlamyūs (1r). — Additional titles: ‘Abu ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī. Sharḥ Arbaʿ maḳālāt’ (spine, transliterated) and several similar titles, e.g., Arbaʿa Maqālāt li-Baṭlamyūs, Sharḥ li-ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān (al-mutaṭayyib) ʿalā Arbaʿa maqālāt allatī min muṣannafāt Baṭlamyūs al-Qalūdhī, Sharḥ ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān li-Kitāb Arbaʿa maqālāt li-Baṭlamyūs yadhkuru ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān al-matn bi-tamāmi-hi thumma yufassiru-hu (all on the title page, 1r). — Index: Book I.1, 1v–26r; I.2, 26r–52v; I.3, 52v–72v; II.1, 72v–94r; II.2, 94r–119r; II.3, 119r–137v; III.1, 137v–160v; III.2, 160v–183v; III.3, 183v–210v; IV.1, 210v–232v; IV.2, 232v–256v; IV.3, 256v–270v. — Authorial colophon and dated scribal colophon. Very few marginal annotations. A collation note in the margin of f. 14r. Corrections in the main text and margins mostly by a black nastaʿlīq hand and indicated by siglum or ṣḥ. A large empty space on f. 44v is marked as ‘correct’ (ṣaḥīḥ, i.e., no text is missing).